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John Taylor,
President of the Virginia Institute for Public
Policy, publisher of Virginia Viewpoint.
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My
children recently participated in Earth Day
assignments at school. According to the curriculum,
the environment is a mess, humans constitute
environmental dangers, global warming is upon us and
we face deteriorating water and air quality. Our
familiar way of life is threatened by resource
depletion, urban sprawl, and growing mountains of
trash. We are awash in human-generated carcinogens,
and so on and so forth.
While
friends of liberty can be glad this Earth Day
nonsense is over for another year, they can hardly
be pleased with the state of environmental education
in our schools. Perhaps it is time for parents to
sit down with their kids to present an alternative
view of the state of the planet. Here are some of
the points I try to make in discussions with my
children.
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By
most measures of environmental quality, things
are getting better.
We are living longer and healthier lives. Child
mortality rates are down. Standards of living
continue to improve, even for the poor.
Educational and cultural opportunities abound.
American enterprise remains creative and
energetic. Social mobility is high. Per capita
disposable income continues to increase.
Available per capita living space continues to
rise. Our water and air continue to become
cleaner. Age-corrected cancer rates are falling.
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Global
warming, if it exists, is a manageable
condition.
The most recent computer models of possible
human-induced global warming reduce the
predicted amount of warming to much lower levels
than earlier models. But computer models are
only sophisticated guesses, and scientists are
divided over the quality of the science behind
them. Predicted changes are well within the
range of known temperature fluctuations that
have been recorded during human history.
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We
are not facing shortages of water and energy,
but price controls and other regulations have
created artificial restrictions in supply.
The universe is a bundle of energy, and water is
the most common substance on earth. We are not
running out of either commodity, but usable
forms of water and energy are not always
available in desired quantities at particular
places. Politicians then step in with price
controls, rationing, regulations, subsidies, and
even criminal penalties to limit use or to
require the sharing of limited supplies of these
goods. This is just another version of socialist
state planning.
Dozens
of studies show that if prices are allowed to
float freely and politicians keep their hands off
various regulatory mechanisms, higher prices allow
new supplies to be brought to market, produce more
efficient use of commodities, create new
technologies, and draw goods from one market to
another. The one defect of this market process is
that it does not allow politicians to pretend to
be doing anything useful. Variations on this theme
account for perceived shortages in other natural
resources as well.
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Urban
sprawl is a sign of prosperity and healthy
growth.
As population and wealth grow, Americans are
going to use their newfound prosperity to
purchase a healthier and higher quality life,
which will include larger homes with the modern
amenities associated with suburban living.
However, zoning restrictions, urban planning,
land use regulations, and high taxes force new
developments farther out from the center of
cities and increase the separation of
neighborhoods from workplaces and shopping
districts. These rules add to congestion,
increase energy use, and encourage the very
environmental changes they were meant to
prohibit or control.
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Liberty
is the best environment for human beings.
This is an environment that consists of the rule
of law, well-defined and secure property rights,
secure contracts, a market-based economy, and
limited, democratic government. Over the ages
this has been a rare and endangered environment
and is still under threat throughout the world
by intrusive central governments and socialists
of all persuasions. An environment of liberty
produces peace and prosperity, longer and better
lives, and, eventually, after lots of hard work,
substantial wealth -- much of which can be used
to produce high-quality environmental amenities
such as parks, nature preserves, clean air and
water, and programs of species preservation. We
should not let this environment be threatened by
the political agenda of those environmental
groups that do not support the institutions of
liberty.
Parents
will want to expand on these themes and guide their
children to reading they can do on their own. We
must remind our kids, and occasionally ourselves,
that assertions made about environmental degradation
are often not supported by facts or science. With
practice and over time, our children will learn that
it is silly to duck every time an “expert” in
search of a federal research grant howls the sky is
falling.
--
June 2, 2003
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